Caring Brotherhood
by appolik
Summary: Todd is depressed, so he decided to rub the Brotherhood off of his presence. How will the other members of the Brotherhood react? Please, read and review.


_**Caring Brotherhood**_

_Disclaimer: I guess, if I did own X-Men: Evolution, I wouldn't be writing fanfictions, but a script to a next seasons. So, I don't own it and I never will. All of the characters belong to Marvel._

_**A/N**_: Thanks to **RogueNya**,**Random hyper asylum escapee**, **Forever Young Mezmeric** for reviewing and faving my previous story =)

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Narration

«Speech»

_Thoughts_

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It was the first time, when Todd Tolensky felt a particularly unpleasant and somewhat disgusting feeling: the feeling of being depressed.

Up until this point he was known as «the optimism of The Brotherhood of Mutants» - he never was pessimistic, and always knew that there is next time, and everything is possible (well, just hard to reach), if you try over and and again.

However, right now, a dark form of inescapable gloom hanged over him, directing all of his thoughts in one and one way only – the way that points into the fact that life is looking very much like an ass: if you got there (doesn't matter from which end), then in order to get out of there, you'll have to go down a path that is full of shit and all other various stuff; besides, there isn't much place to turn around, so you don't have any other choice, but to go further ahead.

It all bean from the moment that Mystique came home from another timeless 'work'. A couple of days ago she missed how her daughter turned another year of life, and she was upset, because she wanted to congratulate Rogue – that is one reason for being in a bad mood; another one was that Magneto definitely was plotting something, but he definitely was not going to share it with her. These two reasons were good enough to make her spill her opinion about that damned life on the first person she meets.

As fate would have it, the first one she met was Todd. It's just natural.

When the den mother of The Brotherhood finished her tear-breaking cries, he nearly went deaf; so he decided to find salvation in lulling his hungry stomach with food.

It should be noted that Freddy, when he cooked, could get carried away. So he got carried away about a couple of days ago, making a feast, worth the richest kings, using every single thing that could be found in the fridge. It also should be noted, that in the house there were currently living an unsatisfiable (when it came to food) big fellow, a teenager of average male height and complexion, an amphibious guy, who needed food as well as others, and a hyper-active never-tiring egoist with high metabolism; there also was a teenage girl and a grow-up woman, but they hardly were home (probably, escaping the company of four guys), and didn't affect the fridge as much.

Anyhow, the feast, worth the richest kings was unreturnably eaten this morning.

_Well, I can always eat bugs…_ he though, still somewhat optimistic, approaching the garbage can… which wasn't just taken out, but also cleaned and disinfected. The toilet showed the same symptoms. Now that he noticed, the whole house was cleaned up, and it was an unusual thing for the mind of young amphibious. Questions, such as Who? When? And Why? were out of place, when the fact of no bugs – no dinner was present.

While attempting to sneak into Fred's room, Todd was certain, that the Blob had some food stored in there. The attempt failed, when the just and fair Lance caught him and told a whole lecture about how it is inappropriate to sneak into others' rooms without a permission.

Pietro's bad mood didn't help either. Well, yeah, he was, after all, interrogated by Mystique – she saw in him her last hope of finding out Magneto's plans – that's where a high level of annoyance came from (well, any sentence that had words 'Maneto', 'plan' and 'unknown' just pissed him off); but to anger out on Todd, who has nothing to do with that, is just wrong.

At the end, moody, disappointed and hungry Tolensky was fool of resolve: no one needed him, with an exception to spill their anger. On him. Therefore, he gathered his little possessions, and quietly jumped out of the window; no one noticed.

_Not wanted, not needed, so what? I can take care of myself… I can take care of anything by myself… Where to go? Not the X-Men, that's for sure; me joining Acolytes doesn't even make sence… Well, it's settled then – to where my eyes look._

[20-40 minutes later]

_Damn it, I shoulda bought a warmer jacket. It's freezing… oh well… damn! What tha…?_

Todd, with great reluctance, found out that his leg was stuck somewhere under fresh snow. He looked around, and noted that he came into park. _Probably, a root._

Trial and failure – that was the result of his attempt to get his foot out.

…_#$%^&*… _besides that, he also thought that he was the most unfortunate and helpless creature in this whole damned world.

«Where? How the hell should I know, where he is? Probably, hopped off to somwhere…»

«Pietro, if we don't find him, Mystique will…»

«Don't find whom?»

The three guys turned around and shuddered under the horrifying glare of the yellow eyes with vertical pupils. The blue woman made a menacing step forward, casting her shadow on all of those particles of bravery the trio had left. The fact, that the light from the window was behind the guys didn't stop the approaching shadow; the window didn't affect the situation at all.

«Well?»

Fred was friendly enough to push Lance a bit forward. Pietro still was in a bit of a shock, because he wanted to do it himself, and he didn't expect such action from the Blob. Lance decided that hiding it didn't make sense anymore, so he whole-heartedly confessed:

«Todd ran away: there's no sight of him, his window is open, and all of his things are gone too»

Lance didn't know, that the whole-hearted confession is a straight way into a jail, so he was a bit surprised, when Mystique nearly gave him a clip on the back of his head.

The blue mutant brushed off all of the emotions and quickly gathered her thoughts into an organized disorder:

«Pietro, get your cell phone and quickly check all of Tolensky's favourite hanging-out places; Lance, you ride to all of the train and bus stations; I'll fly over the city; Wanda… where is she… WANDA!!! Here you are, go to the nearest places…»

«Why?»

«Todd has ran off… oh, don't roll your eyes on me, you know we have to find him… Right, and Fred is staying at home, in case that frog will get an epiphany faster than we expect and will come back. Everyone has cell-phones? Good, let's go then»

The group of four came outside and went each in their direction: Pietro immediately ran off to some direction with the speed of sound; Lance hopped into his jeep, started it and rode off; Mystique turned into a raven and ascended to the sky; Wanda, on her own pair, went to the first place she could think of – the park.

Todd Tolensky already was at the stage of acceptance, when a tiny beam of light, bringing hope and happiness within itself, showed up in front of him, sticking out a hip and folding hands on her chest. Oh, how familiar to him was that facial expression of unpleasantness and particular annoyance. Todd was sure now, that when you see something so pleasant and beautiful, all sadness, all the gloom and wish to die like a dog stormed out of your mind.

«Well?»

Todd still couldn't believe, that the beauty and joy of his existence came to rescue him.

«Explain, why should I leave everything and go out, in such an ass-freezing weather, to look for you? Why the hell did you ran away anyways?»

Still slightly fazed out from his emotions, Todd shared his new perspective on life; he also shared why exactly he sees it that way, as well as his guess about what others think of him; and of course, he also gave his opinion on it overall.

«What a helpless dumbass… do you know what the word «Brotherhood» means? No one gets to choose their brothers, yet they always watch each others' backs, and help overcome obstacles. Like it or not, but I have to dra you home, because we – you, me, Mystique and others – are one family. Not that I get good memories hearing this word, and not that I would recommend myself as a good helper or someone good to share a mind with; but in the Brotherhood I got one thing: it doesn't matter how cold we act towards each other, will never leave each other in a trouble. At first it's unbelievable – Pietro betrayed us, Lance left at some point, I could just disappear for an unspecified time period; but now, when we lived under the same roof for so long, our care for each other grew more solid»

«So… you care for me too, huh?», his gaze was full of hope and premature happiness. Wanda sighed, and said:

«If I didn't care at all, then I would have gone to drink hot chocolate somewhere, and then I'd just say that I didn't find you. Let's go»

Todd stood up (now free from his capture, courtesy of the Witch's hex) and said, as if to himself:

«I'm sure, Pietro said that he didn't care…»

«Maybe, but rust me, his facial expression was showing very well that he was worried»

_Maybe it's true…_

For all of the time they lived together, they became closer: of course they bicker with each other, don't shoe their care, but isn't it the way that brothers act? They are all like brothers (and sister). Even careless Quicksilver became more attentive to others; Lance fully took the right to act like an older brother; he and Pietro don't feel anger, envy and hate towards each other anymore (no, they still «compete» about little things, but more friendly now); Fred started showing his friendly and opened personality more, as he became less shy; Mystique started showing more care (yet she still isn't any less strict); and Wanda stopped acting like she doesn't belong there.

Realising that, Todd realised something else: _maybe now everything will be much better?_

Having fate and hope, he came closer to Wanda and made an attempt to hug her… after which he went flying a couple of meters.

«I care for you, but not **that** much, Toad…»

_Oh well, at least it won't be so bad ;)_

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**_A/N_**: That establishes my point on how the Brotherhood can develop their relationships. I'm not a fan of Wanda/Toad pairing, so please, if there are any fans of it who read it, don't get mad at me . Please, I need some feedback, especially on my use of English Language.


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